The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1887-01-06
KNOTTY QUESTION.
INTERSTATE COMMERCE BILL.

: 1NTERsTATE COMMERCE BILL
A Prominent Railroad Mnn OH tho Rcguln
tion of Traffic his Proposed solution
of the Prtblen,-Pooiing System Dc.
fended rs Reducing tho Rates.
NEw YORK, Jan. 5.-George r. Blan
chard, the well.known railroad man, has
written long letter to the Times on the
Interstate Commerce bill. In his letter
Mr.. Blanchard ssys: Conservative rail.
way managers agree that It should prohibit
discriminating preferences and unreason.
aole rates, and require publicly and
adequate legal penalties. This entities
their grounds Of dissent from It's long and
short haul and antl.pooliny provisions to
lair consideration. It Is Impractical to
solve the complex problem by one land
our frst) law on the subject, whom in thir-
ty years insular England, without State
lines or adjacent nations to confuse, or in.
ternal seas and rivera to restrict rates,
passed and repealed 1900 railway meas.
ures, more or less OF them involving the
principles OF the bill. The length OF haul
problem has similarly perplexed ali
countries where solution was easier
than with us. In none OF them
has 1t to this date been 30
ssrlngently solved as now proposed,
and In some it is yet undetermined. It's
solution cannot be easier in country
offering the greatest mileage and compli.
cations which increase in geological
ratio. This clause recognizes that it win
result in wrongs, as witnesa tho proyiso
authorizing the commission to license ex.
ceptions. 1t ignores the fact that the
warning power alone has in all tho States
having railway commissions proved eff.
cient 10 correct real evils. Tbs great car
rying wrongs alleged before the Hepburn
Committee in this State have all been
silently corrected without legislation as to
length of haul by the almost unsxsrcised
police power ot the Stats Commission.
Given as fair and accessible, a National
Commission with due power and discre-
ton, reporting annually to Congress, and
an intereated public watching and present.
ing its grievances, aud particularly in
view Of the anti-corporate sentiment OF
Congress, the railways would even more
promptly correct uniast.fAble rates and
carrying conditions"
POOLING FEATURES. Ett
In regard to pooling, which the bill
prohibits, MIR. Blanchard says: II object
to the term pool, but must use it. The
underlying motive Of this prohibition is
that II railways can be legally stimulated
to disunite strife by denying them the
right OF united cooperation the public
will benefit. No more superficial view
could prevail, and 1t is clearly political
rather than practical. Conceded that all
interstate rates shall be reasonable, uni
form, nor. preferential, public, long and
short hsuls properly related, and that
national commission enforce all this and
with due remedies at law punish violators,
then the public should welcome rather
than resist all supplementary voluntary
railway action intended to aid precisely
those good objects, as every pool doss.
Rival rates must be made by some form
Of agreement between rival carriers,
and agreement is equally necessary to
thereafter maintain them. Otherwise each
company will make it's own rates, which
is discrimination, and their non-agreed
changes will produce more Discrimination.
Moreover shippers must know their rates
before they ship, but railways need not.
This fact, and tho publicity required, also
neQss5tate agreement, otherwise the
chaos which some reformers call competi.
ton. II the Government owned every
railway in the Union it would bo required
to make equal rates under equal oondi-
tions, as they do equal customs and post
age dues. It would alec require an organ
lzation Of "pool' to maintain its equal
ratea OF transportation, as it now requires
custom house pool and postoitice
pool the terms being ussd respectfully.
Then some form OF equitable tonnage dis
tribution would also be essential, other.
wise one railway or system or district or
city would overelrry, and to change this
by diversion or restriction would be
pooling
THE REMEDY.
"The States have been able alone to
regulate this great question, hence the
present action by the General Govern.
ment. Widely separated and indepsnd-
emily chartered, common carriers have
not, ior similar reasons, been able to regu-
late it without Just railway federation,
which the Government would adopt aud
strengthen and not abandon il il owned
them. Whatever rates are unreasonable
the law and commission should reduce to
reasonableness, but thereafter the same
reasonable rates can aud should and will
exist. with or without pools. Apsume
again that the pools were thus abolished.
1t would be clear corporate duty and
public need that the railways promptly
deviss come other legal machinery by
agreement or by dividing tonnage instead
OF money, to make, preserve and main
tain the same reasonableness and uui.
formity Of charge and equality Of meth.
cd and facility.
'1f, therefore, rates be reasonable, it has
| never been shown what proper public in
terest attaches to the mere methods by
which they are made or maintained or the
tonnage or revenues derived therefrom
and divided between the several first car
riers any more than among their second
connections. There is no testimony that
can prove that legal rates are wrong or e1-
tortionate or can do harm simply because
administered by a pool. Clearly It 10 better
for New York City if all its great westward
railways combine as one in a pool 10
charge only one reasonable rate for all the
like traffic OF all it's merchants as il they
| were one firm than to have the aeparated